In recent years, a conductive film including a transparent conductive thin film has been variously applied to various kinds of electronic devices, such as a display panel and a touch panel. The conductive film is formed by forming a transparent conductive thin film having low resistance on a plastic substrate and patterning the transparent conductive thin film.
In general, such a transparent conductive thin film is formed by vacuum-depositing a specific material, such as indium tin oxide. However, indium tin oxide is expensive, and productivity in vacuum-depositing the indium tin oxide is low. Furthermore, indium tin oxide is not flexible, whereby it is difficult to apply the indium tin oxide to flexible electronic devices. In addition, the indium tin oxide has high resistance, with the result that it is difficult to apply the indium tin oxide to large-sized electronic devices.